Chapter 91: Couldn't Hold On Much Longer?
Marcus Foster's four-dimensional attributes had surged dramatically under the T-virus's influence — particularly his Spirit stat, which was now sitting right at the razor's edge of the mortal ceiling, one single point away from breaking through into something else entirely.
And the transformation wasn't finished.
As Marcus monitored his internal readouts through the Transcendence System, his Strength and Agility each ticked up another point — both now sitting at 24.
Across the lab, the cloned Dr. Isaacs hadn't taken his eyes off him. He was running a dual assessment — cross-referencing the life monitoring instruments with his own direct observation of Marcus's physical condition, building a full picture.
"Hss—" Marcus sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth. The pain had escalated. The molten, magma-like burn coursing through his body was bad enough — but now there was something new layered on top of it. A sudden, stabbing pressure deep inside his skull, like a spike being driven through the center of his mind.
He forced his jaw to unclench. "Still good over here," he managed, his voice tight.
Dr. Isaacs studied the monitors, and something in his expression shifted — less alarm, more genuine bewilderment. "Mr. Foster... your physiological data is climbing across the board. Cell vitality, muscle density, neurological output — everything is accelerating."
"Yeah." Marcus exhaled slowly. "I can feel it. And it's still going."
Dr. Isaacs's voice dropped slightly, almost to himself. "This is almost identical to what happened with Alice."
Marcus didn't respond to that. He didn't have the bandwidth for conversation right now. The mental pressure was building on top of the burning, and holding onto consciousness was starting to require actual effort.
Then it crested.
"Ah—!"
The sound tore out of him before he could stop it.
This time, Dr. Isaacs didn't lunge for the antidote. He stood still, watching the monitors with a focused, analytical expression — because every single readout on the display was still climbing. Whatever was happening inside Marcus Foster wasn't a rejection reaction.
It was something else.
The stabbing sensation in Marcus's mind intensified into something relentless. He locked down every ounce of focus he had and pushed back against it, forcing himself to stay present, stay conscious, hold the line.
The Transcendence System had already told him the stakes: the T-virus carried the potential to unlock and amplify psychic ability — but that potential was fragile. Let go, black out, surrender to the pain, and the window would close. The activation would be diminished. Possibly permanently.
Time stretched. Even with Marcus's sharpened perception, the pain in his mind made it impossible to track how many minutes had actually passed.
System, he snapped internally. Pull up the four-dimensional data. Right now.
The Transcendence System responded without commentary, overlaying the readout directly in his mind:
HOST: MARCUS FOSTER
Strength: 30
Agility: 30
Constitution: 30
Spirit: 31
Marcus stared at the numbers.
His Spirit attribute had broken through. It wasn't sitting at the mortal ceiling anymore — it had crossed it. He was in the transcendent range.
And the other three stats — Strength, Agility, Constitution — had all hit 30. Every one of them was right at the threshold, one point from breaking through as well.
The moment he processed that, the crushing headache that had been splitting his skull simply... wasn't there anymore. Like a switch had been flipped.
Marcus did the rough math. These four stats represented the equivalent of roughly a thousand Destiny points worth of raw value — and he'd only burned through twenty to get here. If that wasn't a return on investment, he didn't know what was.
I could handle worse pain than this, he thought, if the numbers keep moving.
The universe, apparently, took that as a challenge.
The pain doubled.
Not just the mental pressure this time — the burning sensation detonated outward as well, like the difference between standing near a bonfire and being dropped directly into the crater of an active volcano.
Marcus's first instinct was to blame the System. "Did you just do that?"
It wasn't an unreasonable assumption. He'd had the thought, and within seconds the thought had become reality. That sounded exactly like destiny reversing causality.
"Host, that wasn't me," the Transcendence System replied. "Friendly reminder: you are currently undergoing a fundamental biological transition — mortal to extraordinary. The elevation of your life essence generates proportional pain. That's the process."
"So if I can't hold on," Marcus pressed, "I don't make the crossing?"
"Partially correct. If the Host cannot endure the transition, the transformation will be interrupted. However, the Host retains the option to complete the crossing by reversing causality through Destiny points."
Marcus's mind immediately went to the cost. "How many points are we talking? Given where my stats are sitting right now, it shouldn't be that steep, right?"
He already had a rough figure in his head. Back in the mortal range, pushing an attribute up one point through Destiny cost ten points. At the threshold stage — once an attribute hit 30 — it jumped to one hundred points per breakthrough. His Spirit had already crossed over on its own. The other three were all sitting at 30. By his math, three stats at one hundred points each meant three hundred Destiny points total to force all three through.
"Confirmed," the System said. "Based on the Host's current four-dimensional attributes, completing the breakthrough via causality reversal would cost three hundred Destiny points."
Marcus filed that away. One more question. "Is there any actual difference between breaking through on my own versus using Destiny to force it through? Any kind of growth ceiling issue? Long-term penalties? Anything I should know?"
The Transcendence System's response was unusually deliberate. "Host, pay close attention. Reversing causality through Destiny produces a result. A result is a fixed, predetermined fact — it doesn't matter how you arrived at it. Breaking your own limits through willpower and endurance, or bypassing that process through Destiny — both paths lead to the same destination: the transcendent realm. The outcome is identical."
"Think of it this way," the System continued. "If you need to solve 987,654,321 multiplied by 123,456,789 — does it matter whether you work through it longhand on scratch paper or punch it into a calculator? The answer doesn't change based on the method."
Marcus's mouth twitched. "What if I punch in the wrong numbers?"
The Transcendence System went silent for a moment.
It genuinely did not have a response to that.
Moving on, it added one more note: "There is one distinction the Host should be aware of. If you complete the transcendence via Destiny reversal, the breakthrough is clean — but capped. Your four-dimensional attributes will reach exactly 31 points, nothing more."
"However," the System continued, "if the Host completes the transcendence through the T-virus transformation — pushed through by sheer will — the attributes have real potential to exceed 31 points. The upper limit becomes a function of the Host's determination. One additional note: once you've entered the transcendent realm, further attribute increases via Destiny reversal will cost significantly more points per step."
Marcus groaned internally.
So the cheap path — burning Destiny points — got him to 31 and stopped there. The expensive path — sitting in this burning, skull-splitting nightmare and refusing to quit — might push him past that ceiling entirely. And if he tapped out early and used Destiny later to compensate, every single point would cost more.
His instinct toward conservation of resources kicked in hard.
Fine, he thought, settling back into the pain with a grim kind of acceptance. It's just pain. People push through worse. Close your eyes, lock it down, and hold the line — and if it genuinely gets unbearable, then we talk about the three hundred points.
He wasn't spending a single Destiny point before he absolutely had to.
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